I’ve been running this website and blog for almost 2 years now, and until 6 months ago it was a happy place with a small amount of visitor input (hello visitors!!!) and no unsolicited mail or anything troublesome like that.

That isn’t entirely true, WordPress sites such as this attract spammers like bees are attracted to pollen, but a neat little plugin called Akismet blocks them automatically. A recent check showed over 14,000 – yes, you read that number right – spam messages sitting in a folder, unseen by me or the normal human traffic which comes through.

Now though I’m getting an average of 25 spam emails a day, and I have no idea why that is happening. The server has a spam filter, but it’s nowhere near as effective as the Akismet one on WordPress. I don’t want a Louis Mutton handbag, I’m not interested in Alaskan Cruises, or even Russian Brides. Quite what these people, or more likely bots, think they are gaining from sending this junk out is beyond me.

I’ve already removed the “Contact” page from the website, but that hasn’t stemmed the flow – although it has changed the type of spam slightly. It’s also had the negative effect that people aren’t able to quickly send a message. I’ve increased spam filters on the server as much I dare, I may try even higher though.

Overall though it is the most frustrating and pointless thing ever. Spam. Nice fried, but not in your inbox. They surely can’t get anything from it so why even bother? Would save me a lot of time hitting delete.

Just to reassure you there are genuine visitors ☺ they’re either genuinely (??!) trying to sell imitation tat or harvesting contact information etc to sell on? Or maybe they’re just saddos with nothing else to do..

Al, the irony of your comment is that your post went into my Spam folder on the email but William’s above didn’t. DOH! I’m not sure they are even real, but somebody has to start the ball rolling I figure. They need to have a word with themselves I reckon.